MMA Innovation: Mobile Programmatic Creativity

We presented at the Mobile Marketing Association’s creative innovation seminar a while back, where we discussed the future of mobile programmatic creativity. Alongside talking about this we asked the question: Why aren’t advertisers using it mainstream yet?

Mobile is the fastest growing form of digital media, and it doesn’t show any signs of stopping any time soon, after all, after mobiles and wearable tech, what is there? This one might be around for a while. But what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

In a world where we are glued to our phones wherever we go, advertisers have the opportunity to get the attention of people when they are commuting, out and about, or even just sitting in front of the TV. We are in fact on average accessing the web more through our smartphones than our desktop computers and laptops. So why haven’t we made mobile advertising interesting, or engaging? Branded content on mobile is slowly getting more engaging, and there is some great stuff out there, but lacks the programmatic creative edge.

Mobiles are the Swiss army knives of technology, though slightly safer excluding the ones that burst into flames. There is so much to play with on a mobile phone, part of the reason why we can’t seem to put them down; tech such as 3D, virtual reality, gyroscopes and 360, all make content significantly more immersive. I am trying hard not to say the word ‘addictive’ here. But with mobile we have the opportunity to break away from annoying advertising by making content that really is awesome.

On average we spend 1 hour and 20 minutes accessing the web on our phones, split between entertainment, surfing, watching videos and playing games; or we are being productive, shopping, booking, banking etc. When we know what they are up to on their phone through data analysis, we can hit them with the right content. So why are most advertisers not targeting these people properly? The knowledge to do so is out there, most of us just don’t know how to use it yet, so we avoid it.

With 87% of this web access time being spent in apps, we are able to access valuable location data; nothing we don’t already like to tell the world on social media. We can get this data from the apps, which helps us to understand their offline behaviour.

Using locational data to enhance creative output is incredibly tangible now; it is the mobile version of the cookie. But talking about data is boring, talking about creativity is fun, so picture this: Upon checking into a city on social media, the mobile user could experience a 360 journey through some of the cities attractions and hot locations specifically tailored to their interests. Or taking into account weather data, whilst at a zoo on a rainy day they could be served an ad or experience tailored to them to watch the latest blockbuster in a nearby cinema.

At Atomic Live we want to create stories, really immersive brand stories that provoke more than just engagement, but actually stir a feeling. We started in 2015 with our campaign for The i newspaper, now we can do this with programmatic creativity for mobile, and 2016 is going to be that year.